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| Crew & Mission |
   
Left: Vladimir Remek (r) and Aleksei A. Gubarev in their training Sokols. Note that the Interkosmos council patch is placed over the early Zvezda-logo. During the mission it was worn on the right sleeve. On the flight Sokols, the Czech and Soviet seals were not worn and the Soviet flag was a felt, square lettered type instead of the early silk version shown here. Center, right: The crew their training intravehicular training jackets. Gubarev is wearing an 'empty' Zvezda patch (without the letters 'Salyut') and an early Soviet seal. During the mission, the seal was larger and a bi-lingual nametag was present. The Zvezda-patch was replaced by an Interkosmos patch. Remek was wearing a small Czech flag during training. The jacket worn during the mission had a bi-lingual nametag. The flag was replaced by a bigger patch, showing the letters 'CSSR'. Soyuz-28 was the first Interkosmos mission. Soyuz-28 was launched on March 2, 1978 and docked to the Salyut-6 station a little less than 26 hours later. Commander Aleksei Gubarev and Czech Interkosmos cosmonaut Vladimir Remek joined Salyut-6 Expedition crew Yuri Romanenko and Yuri Grechko for a week. They returned to Earth on March 10, followed six days later by Romanenko and Grechko.    A yellow-type Interkosmos council patch (l), the Czech Flag (c) and the Czech Seal (r). |
| Patch History |
 The Council for International Cooperation in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space (Interkosmos) was founded in 1976. Naturally, new emblems for uniforms and pressure suits were needed to reflect the cooperative nature of the missions. On December 14-15, 1977, a conference was held in Moscow by representatives of Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany and the USSR, discussing the public relations aspect, the creation of the emblems and logos, and candidates for the flights. On December 23, 1977, Chairman B.I. Petrov of the Interkosmos council informed Zvezda General Director/Designer G. I. Severin announcing that Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, and East Germany had agreed to participate in joint missions. Probably, it was in this letter that Zvezda was instructed to produce the Bulgarian, Czechoslowakian and East German joint mission Sokol-K suits and mission patches.
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| The Real Thing |
 Left: Detail of Remek's flight Sokol. Right: Gubarev and Remek about to enter their spaceship.
The joint mission patch was worn on the right sleeve of the intra-vehicular suits. The Interkosmos council logo (yellow type) was worn on the right lower torso, with the Soviet and Czech seals at the upper left chest. On the Sokol suits, the Interkosmos patch was worn on the right sleeve. On both suits, the flags were worn on the left sleeve. The Soviet flag was a felt, square lettered type on both the Sokol and the intravehicular suit.
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| Collecting Soyuz-28 |
    The Space Commerce Corporation reproduction (l) and the Stewart Aviation reproduction (c). The patches at right are souvenir versions made by Eagle One Aerospace.
The patch was designed and produced by the Zvezda corporation. Two souvenir versions were made in the West by Stewart Aviation in England and Space Commerce Corporation in the United States. Two related patches were produced by Eagle One Aerospace in Virginia: one with the portraits of the cosmonauts and one with the Interkosmos logo. Unfortunately, the cyrillic "ch" character was picked up as a "4" in this version, a typical mistake in Western-made souvenir patches. The Stewart Aviation version is no longer available in their catalogue; the SCC version is offered every now and then on eBay. The EOA-version with the flags and Interkosmos logo is still available from Cargo Bay Emblems. The original Soviet-made patch was made available to officials as part of a Presentation Set, which is scarcely seen in auctions. The original patches shown on this page are scans from the book "40 Let Kosmicheskogo Polviga" ("40 Years of Spaceflight"; Moscow December 2000), except for the Interkosmos council patch, which is in our collection. The picture of the artwork and the SCC version were taken from eBay auctions.
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